Renovating Denver - One House at a Time

Victorian Renovation in the Baker Neighborhood of Denver, Colorado

We are a little late getting this blog started, but late is better than never! We are a recently married couple undertaking a renovation of a home located in the Historic Baker District in Denver, Colorado. This is our first major renovation, and we thought keeping a blog would help us keep a great record of our progress. We hope this is a great way to keep our family and friends involved in our project too!

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You can’t see it in the photos, but there is actually a lot of detailed woodwork at the top of the house. Everything is painted this *lovely* shade of mint green (to match the *lovely* mint green awning). There is actually dentil molding and beautiful curly-cue corbels. Instead of shingles on the front face (there are shingles on the 3 other sides of the house), there is post and beam construction, reminiscent of the Tudor/Elizabethan style. Once we get in there with new paint, this top detail will really be the focus of the house.

The home was built in 1892 as a single family home. Research tells us that one of the famed “Fleming Brothers” designed, built and occupied the home for the first decade or so. The Fleming Brothers built homes and commercial buildings in and around the Baker/West Wash Park neighborhoods. They built several commercial building in the 1st/Broadway area. They also built the home immediately next door right around the same time ours was built.

Records are vague in the early 1900’s, but around 1925 John and Sarah Grant bought the home. From what I can piece together, John must have passed around the same time, leaving Sarah a widow. I believe at this time (1927ish) the home was converted to several apartments. From this time until now the house has functioned as a multi-unit apartment building.

There are currently four separate units in the home. The main floor is divided between a studio apartment (#1) and a 1-BD apartment (#2). This one bedroom apartment includes an addition on the back of the house, which may have at one time been a back porch. The entire second floor is a 2-BD apartment (#3). The basement apartment (#4) has a separate entrance in back and is a 1-BD unit.

We bought the home in June 2006, and inherited several tenant leases through the end of 2006. So, no major work could start until the tenants’ leases were up and they were moved out. The first project we tackled was updating the electrical box. The one we had (see photo below) was apparently from 2 generations ago, and was known to start fires! The other photos below are common areas in the house (please click photos to see the amazing details).

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The last tenant was moved out by January 8, 2007. We will be converting the structure back to a single family home. This means knocking down some walls, removing kitchens and bathrooms, rebuilding the front porch area, and possibly finishing the currently unfinished attic. We have been working with an architect since October 2006. The first project we tackled with him was the exterior porch/deck on the front of the house and the garage in back. We will wait to build the garage until most of the other work is done.